search marketing

Another Google Marketing Live is in the books, and we have more insight into the path of Google Ads for the year. Last year was all about automation, and we continue to optimize to those initiatives today: Developing rich and diverse text ad assets for Responsive Search Ads is an ongoing task in our queue. Many of our campaigns have moved to Automated Bid Strategies with improved results for our clients. Attribution past Last Click is gaining adoption. We are making use of Smart campaigns, specifically Smart Shopping, to widen […]

Switching Banks is Hard. Luckily, it’s not impossible.   Switching. Banks. Is. Hard. Like – getting-a-toddler-to-sit-still, opening-a-pickle-jar-on-your-91st-birthday, changing-political-views-on-social-media hard. Yet as financial institutions, we all want to achieve that brass ring, to become their primary financial institution – with all the loan and share balances that come with that relationship.   So let’s take the hard and make it eas…OK. OK. Let’s take the hard and make it less hard.   It’s gonna take more than a banner ad Helping a potential customer switch to your place won’t happen with […]

Our KPIs are better than yours. I believe that most of the time this statement is true (although there are the occasional times where I run across someone with some really kick-ass KPIs and strategies). I believe that our KPIs are better because this is an emphasis of how we do business for ourselves and for our clients. We take it so seriously we brought in a Customer Success Director to make sure we are tracking toward KPIs that indicate success.   What Are KPIs (In Marketing)? KPIs, or key […]

Running successful, effective paid media strategies across Paid Search (Google/Bing), Paid Social (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc), and online display can be a challenging task for anyone, even marketers with tons of time. For marketers tasked with dozens of items, it becomes exponentially more difficult even for the most savvy and experienced digital marketer to keep up. Using marketing automation to enhance digital paid media campaigns can create new layers of efficiency and create a more integrated strategic approach. Here are four tricks for how you can leverage marketing automation […]

In some significant news out of the Ads wing of Google HQ last week, it was announced that Google Ads will be sunsetting the Average Position metric. If you’re surprised (like I was) you can relax for now – the change isn’t coming until September. Surprised as I was, upon reflection the change makes a lot of sense. Below I’ll explain the “why” behind the move, as well as metrics to pay attention to moving forward.   Why Did Google Ads Get Rid of Average Position? From my first day […]

You’ve done it! Your campaigns are scheduled and targeted, and ad groups are aligned to your offerings with carefully crafted keywords and ad copy. Time to sit back and watch the results come in, right?   Not so fast! No campaign is ready to go without a full array of Ad Extensions. Ad Extensions are add-ons to your ad copy that can increase your performance, including through improved clickthrough rate and higher likelihood of conversion. Simply put, ads with more information that make use of more pixels tend to perform […]

Latest Ranking Factors and Organic Search Trends How to appear organically in Google search is a constantly evolving process. New features appearing directly in search results, more results page real estate going to ads, and continuous algorithm updates keep marketers on their toes. Let’s look at the SEO trends to watch for in 2019.   7 Important SEO Trends in 2019 Machine learning / RankBrain Intent based content and keywords Featured snippets Crawler optimization Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-A-T) JSON-LD schema Site usability   1. Machine learning / RankBrain From […]

Early on in my career, my peers and I focused a lot on individual keyword bids. If Cost Per Action was too high, lower your bids. If you want a higher volume of traffic, increase your bids! With the increasing availability and sophistication of Bid Automation (which I’ll cover in a later post), I focus very little on individual keyword bids anymore. A Max Cost Per Click by Keyword simply doesn’t matter that much anymore, and a big reason for that is the ability to apply bid adjustments by Audience. […]

On November 1st, I will be a part of a 3 person panel at SEMPO Cities KC on the topic of Exploding ROI with Paid Search. As a precursor to this presentation (note to self: work on this presentation!), I wanted to share a few thoughts on what is working in Paid Search…and Paid Social. The reality of online advertising, in my opinion, is that getting yourself stuck in one channel is similar to the idea of putting too much of your investments into a single stock or group of […]

As a digital marketing agency, we are highly focused on identifying strategies and tactics that will work to drive further engagement and conversion online. We love digital because of the high level of “measurability” we have when it comes to monitoring the tactics that we deploy. However, we also know that most businesses rely to some degree on their offline footprint to drive ongoing engagement beyond the typical digital channels like search, email, and social media. That’s where offline to online ad targeting comes in handy.   These business that […]

SEO can boost your marketing automation efforts in these three ways: Build leads and lists through qualified organic traffic Utilize existing organic data to optimize conversion points Use keyword research to send targeted content to specific lists Click on the links above to jump to that section. I recently discussed this topic at the And Then Some emfluence Conference 2018. Here is the video and SlideShare of my talk: How SEO Can Boost Your Marketing Automation Efforts from emfluence   But if you’re more into reading/scanning, the meat of the […]

For the past several years, Google has been pushing site security to webmasters. HTTPS has been an organic ranking signal since at least 2014. When browsing on an HTTP website, instead of HTTPS, a third-party can insert ads that aren’t on the original webpage, inject cryptocurrency mining software (here is a popular example of this recently), or redirect you to a different site in order to steal your username and password.   HTTP Not Secure Warning Starting July 24th, along with the launch of Google Chrome 68, Chrome will display […]

Attracting the right kind of leads—you know, the ones that actually want to buy something from you—is one of the B2B marketer’s biggest challenges. You can pay for clicks or you can pay for impressions, and while both options have value, neither option guarantees you a high volume of truly interested, sales-ready leads.   Fortunately, getting those kinds of leads is exactly what pay per lead, or PPL, is designed for.   But first…   What Is Pay Per Lead Advertising? Unlike pay per click (PPC) or pay per impression […]

On May 25th, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be officially in effect. The GDPR is designed to update the rules on personal data collection and retention and will significantly alter how all organizations can handle customer information. Check out Dave Cacioppo’s previous blog post covering the broader impact of GDPR for Marketers. This post is going to be focused on a more granular facet of the impact of GDPR – Google Analytics (in truth, all web analytics platforms).   What Does GDPR Mean for Google Analytics? […]

Making some big changes to your website? Change is good! But if you aren’t careful with site migration, it could be disastrous for your SEO presence. Here’s our site migration SEO checklist for changing domain names or moving to HTTPS: Ask Yourself: Why Are You Migrating Your Site? The two main reasons you may be migrating your site: A domain name change Moving from HTTP to HTTPS Both are long-term investments in the site’s future. A domain name change is typically sparked by a branding overhaul. Moving to HTTPS is […]

When creating content, one of the biggest challenges we have is marketers is the balance between writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and writing for our customers. At least, that is the internal challenge we think exists. In reality, the challenge is not nearly as big as we think. Let’s look at how to create a content marketing SEO strategy.   In its most recently product SEO Starter Guide, Google has made it clear that “optimized content” is one of the most important ranking factors to consider. But what exactly […]

Images make any content more interesting and appealing by helping readers understand your content better. Plus, images add value to your SEO efforts by increasing user engagement and accessibility of your website. There are a number of important factors that can be optimized to help improve image SEO on your site.   Let’s walk through some of the best practices for optimizing images on your website to help you rank higher in organic search.   Improve Image SEO with Tools Since having images is crucial to image SEO, finding and […]

What Gets Measured Gets Managed – A FREE Content Calendar For SEO and Social Media   Peter Drucker was a legendary business thinker. If you’ve never read any of his books on business and management, you should (at the very least) memorize his most famous words. What gets measured, gets managed. It’s not rocket science, it’s pure common sense. At past companies, I felt like Marketing Departments worked in silos, which doesn’t help year-end goals. You have the Search Team over here working on X, Social Media is working on […]

As is customary for many people around this time (okay, maybe I’m a little late), it’s time to make some predictions on the biggest trends I believe will dominate 2018 SEO trends discussions in the coming year. As everyone knows, mastering the Google Dance is not easy…they keep changing the steps to keep us on our toes. Nonetheless, we’ve wrapped up the seven trends we think will come into play this year.   Mobile First Index – Go Beyond Responsive On November 4th, 2016 Google began “testing” its mobile-first index. […]

Wondering how to optimize your Google Merchant Center Shopping Feed? As we move into a new year, most businesses are currently going over end of year reporting and planning Paid Search budgets for 2018. This is the boring stuff the VPs are sifting through while the fun is just beginning for your resident Google PPC Geeks who love presenting the facts and building out improvements to their Google Product Listing Ads. If you manage a Google Shopping Feed and utilize programs like BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify and a dozen other CMS […]

What is schema markup? Schema markup is structured data coding, recognized by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex, added to an individual webpage which gives those search engines additional context to the content of the page.   Basically, schema helps remove some of the guesswork for search engines.   Here is a use for schema example Take the word crane for example. Katy has a webpage to sell her crane.   Is she selling a bird classified as Aves? I totally didn’t have to Wikipedia that. Did you know cranes usually […]

Now more than ever, marketing and sales strategies and communications need to be aligned in order to create an effective growth strategy. The path and singular focus of these two historically siloed business units continues to move closer together into a unified vision. I believe that inbound marketing will be the centerpiece of this unification because of the focus on pipeline growth and nurturing.   An inbound strategy, in the broadest terms, is a marketing strategy which is focused on demand generation, lead acquisition, and lead nurturing. Traditionally, the line […]

Whether it’s foot traffic to your retail store or an online purchase, there is no doubt that positive online reviews, combined with the power of local SEO, play a pivotal role in Search Engine Optimization and increased traffic to your business.   If you haven’t noticed them before, reviews show up under Google Maps when you search for a business name. This year, local reviews factored in 13% of the search algorithm that influences where one business ranks versus where the other ranks in the local 3 pack that appears […]

Ecommerce paid search has had a renaissance in recent years and now Amazon is looking to use its credibility in the Ecommerce space to build a Paid Search Platform. According to a study by BloomReach in 2017, Fifty-five percent of people start their digital shopping experiences on Amazon. Seth Dallaire, VP of Global Sales at Amazon Media Group, said, “There’s an expectation from people who visit Amazon [that] they’re going to find anything they want.” Amazon hopes to use this credibility to create a paid search product that will monetize […]

Following on from Alan’s great blog post about advertising blockers, I wanted to share a bit of information about the technical side of adblocking to help the techies in marketers’ offices understand how it works, what you need to know if you’re employing trackers, and how vendors might be impacted. So I took a quick dive into Webkit’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) initiative from a technologist’s perspective.   Alan’s post focused a lot on the adblocking aspect of this and how it’s driven by consumers. I’m going to focus more on the […]

Imagine you’ve just opened a website and a pop-up appears or a video starts pre-playing with sound before you can click or read anything. Or maybe you’re shopping for a vacuum cleaner or a pair of pants—which then follow you around the internet in display ads for the next month. Popups and video auto-plays are intrusive, and it has become a game-like challenge for site visitors to close the popup or pause the video. Similarly, display ads based on your search history aren’t always applicable to what you actually want. […]

Pop quiz…just five quick questions for you. Do you know every page/piece of content on your website and how it is displayed within search results? Do you know what errors have been found by Google, Bing, and other search engines? Is your site optimized for all device types? What does it look like on mobile vs. desktop? Has your site been negatively impacted by any of the latest Penguin, Panda, or various other algorithm updates? Do you know what your most important keywords and pages are on your site?   […]